Album review: Museum, Traces Of

In the shorthand of the internet (where this group gave away their first two EPs) this is "for fans of Interpol, Bauhaus, Placebo" which is helpful but doesn't explain everything about this four-piece rock outfit from Germany. Although their debut sometimes seems more alt.New York/New Wave or angsty-Anglo rock than hip 'n' happening Berlin, they have a pared-back approach which doesn't discount a sense of widescreen grandeur (A Feast is a Feast, For the Very First Time), and though they sometimes work repetitious melodic figures that add to the intensity (the slow-burning With Love).

Museum aren't short on pop (the chipper-sounding but dark And Now like mid-era Blur, the sonically manipulated ballad The Have or To Be) or averse to nodding towards slashing electronica (the brooding The Law) and even come off a little like Kraftwerk with guitars.

After about eight of these 11 songs their reach for the grand gesture gets a little wearisome, although, as its title suggests, the penultimate Midwinter changes the mood towards the Smiths.

Overall, like the car on the cover, finely tooled but damaged.

Stars: 3/5Verdict: An interesting throwback from the music city of the 21st century